In a Pickle: Strategies for Reducing Food Waste

The United States produces roughly 35 million tons of food waste every year, 95% of which, according to the EPA, goes straight to our landfills and incinerators. That means food waste ends up in our municipal solid waste systems more than any other kind of solid waste. At Brainfood, we care a lot about our food: where it comes from, how it was raised or grown, how it’s preserved and stored, the way it’s seasoned, handled, and cooked, and the energy and nutrients it provides us. This month at Summer Institute, our students paused to think about simple, realistic strategies to make the most out of our food resources and reduce food waste.

And they came up with some great ideas:

• Restaurants and catering companies can donate uneaten foods to community organizations who use it to feed those in need,
• Individuals and food businesses can compost food waste, putting life-giving organic matter back into the soil,
• Individuals and families can preserve foods during seasons of abundance in order to extend the lifetime of foods, and
• We can expand our notions of what is edible and not edible.

We wanted to see just how simple and easy some of these strategies can be, so we tried our hand at pickling food to extend its lifetime 

and keep it out of the landfill. The Brainfood class tested an amazing, spicy-sweet recipe for sriracha fridge pickles from Bon Appetit, which uses swiss chard stems, a part of the plant that’s normally discarded, instead of cucumbers. This recipe packs a double punch in terms of reducing food waste!